


I Can’t Contain This Anymore

by shnixangel



Series: Pity Date [2]
Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 09:47:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3805909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnixangel/pseuds/shnixangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick was scrolling through Twitter and Tumblr later that evening.  He’d not replied to Harry’s last message from this morning and had spent the day lying on the sofa trying to recover from his morning.  He’d had various missed calls from people who he knew were calling to see if he wanted to join them for drinks or dinner that evening, but he was content to lie on his sofa, replaying the morning over and over in his mind.  He wasn’t lying when he’d told Louis’ he’d wank into the dip in the mattress made by Louis’ body.</p>
<p>Just as he was about to close Tumblr, a post caught his eye.</p>
<p>‘I’m sure I’ve just seen Louis from 1D in Dubai - wasn’t he sick and missed the show in Melbourne last night?’</p>
<p>Or - what happens after Louis leaves Nick after the pity Valentine's Day date?</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Can’t Contain This Anymore

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shniam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shniam/gifts).



> So, I wanted to write what happened after Louis' flew back to Australia and this is the result! Thank you to Shniam for the hand holding and re-reading of this several times!

Nick was scrolling through Twitter and Tumblr later that evening. He’d not replied to Harry’s last message from this morning and had spent the day lying on the sofa trying to recover from his morning. He’d had various missed calls from people who he knew were calling to see if he wanted to join them for drinks or dinner that evening, but he was content to lie on his sofa, replaying the morning over and over in his mind. He wasn’t lying when he’d told Louis’ he’d wank into the dip in the mattress made by Louis’ body.

Just as he was about to close Tumblr, a post caught his eye.

‘I’m sure I’ve just seen Louis from 1D in Dubai - wasn’t he sick and missed the show in Melbourne last night?’

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!’ Nick swore, sitting up immediately and clicking into the user’s profile. They’d posted it about an hour ago. Nick hadn’t heard from Louis since he’d left Heathrow that morning, but he grabbed his laptop and tried to find out when his flight would’ve landed.

Nick was just about to pick up his phone to message Louis when his phone rang. Seeing it was Harry calling him on Skype, he snatched it up.  
‘Haz?’  
‘We’ve got a problem.’

*** 

It turned out that Louis had made the flight from Dubai to Melbourne by the skin of his teeth, the flight having been held for 25 minutes past departure time to make sure that Alberto and Louis were on it, and an air steward for Emirates had realised it was Louis as he’d boarded him onto the plane and Alberto hadn’t had enough time to ensure that the air steward knew that he wasn’t allowed to say anything about it because the captain was stood at the door looking extremely cross that his flight had been delayed. Not only did it cost them time and money, the penalties for arriving in Melbourne late, due to the flying restrictions at night, were extremely harsh.

‘So Louis doesn’t know?’ Nick asked, feeling physically sick.  
‘No. As soon as I saw that post, I got Paddy onto it and he managed to connect with the user and the posts and everything have been deleted, but if one person saw him, there’s a chance other people might have seen them and we can’t contain it all.’  
‘Does Liam know?’  
‘Not yet, although how I convinced Paddy not to tell him just yet, I have no idea. I’ve got to go and wake Liam up shortly and break the news to him.’  
‘How much trouble is Louis going to be in?’ Nick wondered, idly stroking Pig’s head as she looked worriedly up at him.  
‘If we could be fired from One Direction, there’s no way that Louis would keep his job, put it that way.’ Harry replied.  
‘And Alberto?’  
‘He’ll be lucky to keep his job. Depends on how much flack Louis is prepared to take.’ Harry answered.  
‘He needs to take up all of the flack!’ Nick exclaimed.  
‘Yeah, yeah, I’m sure he will, but…well, you know Louis - when he’s backed into a corner, he fights and scraps.’

A smirk spread over Nick’s face and Harry scowled at him. ‘I do not want to know the inner workings of your sex lives, thanks very much!’

A laugh burst out of Nick’s mouth. ‘Sorry! When will he land in Melbourne?’  
‘Like, 12 hours or so. There’s wifi on board, but unless he decides to check it, I can’t warn him. So far, I don’t think management have worked it out, but if they do, they’ll meet him at the airport for a bollocking.’

Nick closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of the sofa. ‘He’s probably pretty tired, so if he’s got any sense, he’ll have slept the whole way.’  
‘Again, Grim, I don’t want to know!’

*** 

The wait to hear from Louis was beyond agonising. Nick went to bed at 11pm, knowing that Louis would land in 9 hours. He’d sent him message, after message, after message and then finally a long email which he hoped Louis would at least read on the plane once the aircraft was on the ground, but before he left the plane in the hope that he could prepare him for what was about to happen.

When he woke at 8am the next morning, he checked his phone to find one message from Louis that had been sent 15 minutes ago.

‘I am so dead. Why couldn’t you have shagged me to death in your bed? At least that would’ve been a better way to die.’

‘Not sure explaining that to the police, a coroner, your management and your fans would have been easy.’ Nick replied.

‘I’ll call you when I’m out of MM jail.’

Nick smiled sadly at his phone, and then called Harry.

‘He’s landed and he knows.’ Nick opened with.  
‘They found out. They’re meeting him off the plane. I haven’t warned him that they are there because he kind of needs to understand how much he’s fucked up.’ Harry replied sleepily.  
‘You know I gave him a bollocking when he arrived unannounced, don’t you?’

Harry laughed slowly. ‘Is that what they call dicking now?’  
‘Rude popstar, rude! Will you make sure he’s ok for me?’  
‘I thought you two were just purely platonic Grim?’ Harry asked teasingly.  
‘We are. We’ve never, ever been anything else.’  
‘I still can’t believe I never knew, and neither of you ever told me. I feel so hurt…'  
‘Oh stop it. Just, make sure he’s ok, alright?’

*** 

Nick googled them Sunday morning after the second Melbourne show and there were lots of people saying how poorly poor Louis still looked and the odd one about whether he’d actually been ill or whether he’d actually skipped the country, but most people were so sure he’d never lie to them about being sick so didn’t take much notice of it, which was a huge relief but Nick couldn’t believe how gullible people were. 

Nick had just got into bed on Sunday night when his phone rang, Louis calling on FaceTime.

‘So you’re still alive then?’ Nick smiled, answering the FaceTime call.

There was a slight delay before Louis’ face came onto the screen and he smiled tiredly at Nick.

‘I have no idea how. I thought I’d been in trouble with my mum before when I was young, but it was nothing in comparison. If I wasn’t worth so much money to them as part of the band, I’d have been fired.’

‘And Liam? How has he taken the news?’

‘That was Liam!’ Louis winked. ‘Well, he didn’t take it well at all - Zayn was cool about it and Niall was worried about how it could impact us all, but I think they’ll forgive me.’

‘Do…did you have to tell them where you’d been?’ Nick asked carefully.  
Louis nodded. ‘I wish I could’ve taken a photo of their faces when I told them I’d flown to England to see someone and of course, they wanted to know who it was, so I had to tell them it was you.’  
‘How’d they take it?’  
‘Surprised. Told me you’d better be worth it.’ Louis smiled carefully.

Nick lay down and raised his arm in the air so that Louis could still see him. 

‘What are we doing?’  
‘Right now? Surely you know what this technology is called? It’s a video call Grimshaw.’ Louis grinned widely.  
‘Ah. And what does this red button do?’ Nick asked, his finger hovering over the ‘end call’ button.  
‘Don’t you dare - took 17 attempts to connect.’ Louis snapped.  
‘You called me 17 times?’ Nick laughed.

Louis’ face froze momentarily. ‘Perhaps.’ He mumbled. ‘So…hey, what time is it? Do you need to go to sleep?’

Nick glanced at his clock. It was 9.30pm. He should really get some sleep; he was still knackered from the previous morning. ‘It’s half nine. As long as I’m asleep by ten, I’ll be fine. What are your plans today?’

‘Day off, well, for the others - I apparently need to hear more about how irresponsible I am.’ Louis muttered crossly.

‘Got time for…?’ Nick trailed off, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

A wide grin appeared on Louis’ face. ‘Were you serious about wanking into the mattress?’  
‘Already done it, so yes.’ Nick laughed, blushing slightly.  
‘Nicholas!’ Louis exclaimed, shifting his phone into his other hand and trailing his other hand down his stomach.  
‘Well, I told you I would do and I like to keep my promises!’ Nick grinned at him, moving onto his side and placing the phone on his bedside table before lying on his back again whilst making sure that Louis could see him sprawled out on the bed.  
‘You need to make me more sex promises, just the thought of you wanking over me gets me fucking hard.’ Louis groaned, doing the same with his phone.

Nick laughed. ‘What sort of sex promises do you want Tomlinson?’ He asked, gripping his cock in his hand, which was already pretty hard just from the mere thought of phone sex.   
‘More of this for a start - why have we never done this before?’ Louis panted and Nick glanced at his phone screen, seeing Louis lying on the bed, head tipped back and cock in one hand, his other hand snaking around to his hole.  
‘I have no idea. Happy to promise you more of this!’ Nick laughed breathily. ‘We’ve done sexting.’ He reminded Louis.  
‘And believe me, I’ve used those messages to get myself off a lot!’

Nick raised an eyebrow at the phone. ‘Have you? That’s very naughty of you Louis.’ He said with a smirk, lazily thrusting his hips into his hand, watching Louis on the phone, his stomach tight as he used both hands to tease himself for Nick.  
‘Fuck. I love it when you talk dirty to me.’ Louis panted. ‘It’s such a huge fucking turn on.’  
‘Is it?’ Nick asked, surprised. He’d done it in the past, but not to any great extent and Louis had never given away how much he loved it.  
‘Ok, I’m going to lie on my front and I’m not going to touch myself and I want you to get me off with just your words.’

Nick’s cock jerked forcefully into his hand. ‘Fuck Lou, you’re going to make me come just talking like this!’ He groaned as he watched Louis turn over and grip onto the headboard, grinding his hips into a pillow he’d put underneath his groin.   
‘Come on, make me come Nick, I’m gagging for it.’ Louis admitted.

Nick had to take a deep breath to keep his concentration. ‘Phew…ok, I want you to rock nice and slow into that pillow and I want you to imagine that I’m going to let you fuck me for a change. That ok? Would you like to do that?’ He asked, his eyes dropping closed momentarily.

‘Uh huh.’ Came the shallow response from Louis and Nick could see his hands gripping the headboard a little more tightly.

‘And I’m so tight, because we don’t do it that often, I’m so tight and you want to push into me hard, but you’ve not opened me up enough yet and you can’t just fuck me as hard as you want to, but you’re so desperate, so on the edge of coming…' Nick groaned. Not once had Louis fucked him, but he’d thought about it often but it just wasn’t something they’d ever talked about and the more he talked about it now, the closer he was to coming extremely fast.

‘God Nick, I want that so bad.’ Louis groaned, turning his head to face the phone, his eyes looking directly at Nick.  
‘Yeah? You’d open me up quickly and roughly, licking down my back, and into my crack and teasing me so much and then I’d be ready, and you’d coat your fucking beautiful cock with lube and you’d push into me so easily and you’d fuck me so hard…’ Nick panted, his voice catching as he felt his orgasm almost upon him.

‘Fuck…fuck, Nick, more, more, please…’ Louis panted, his hips rocking into the pillow hard and fast. ‘Make me come, please…'  
‘I’m gonna come Louis and when you come, I want you to imagine coming in my arse, buried so deep in me…’ Nick groaned and then he wasn’t able to contain himself any longer and he came on a loud moan of Louis’ name, white, thick ropes of come shooting over his hand and onto his chest. 

As he opened his eyes again, he watched Louis’ eyes squeeze close and the rise and fall of Louis’ hips into the pillow and then Louis’ body tensed as he gave one more hard thrust into the pillow, calling Nick’s name and coming to an abrupt stop.

Nick grabbed a flannel from his bedside table, wiping himself down as he watched Louis’ slack body slowly come back to life.

‘Ok?’ Nick laughed quietly.  
‘Yeah, that was alright, I guess.’ Louis agreed with a smirk, rolling onto his side and throwing the pillow on the floor. ‘Think they may need to destroy that pillow!'

*** 

Nick stumbled into the office at 6.15am the following morning. He was meant to be in at 6am each morning so he and Matt could go through the plan for the day’s show, but he and Louis had spent much longer on FaceTime the previous night than he’d planned and getting out of bed at 5am just wasn’t possible, so his driver had called several times before Nick had finally been able to get out of the house. It was only a five minute drive that early in the morning, but he was still 15 minutes late.

‘Big weekend or something?’ Matt grinned at him as Nick poured himself a large coffee.  
Nick shook his head. ‘Not really. Just stressful.’  
Matt raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Why? What happened?’

Nick froze. ‘Nothing.’ He said with a forced smile. ‘Just home stuff, that’s all.’

Grabbing what he needed, Nick headed into the studio, putting his headphones on, turning the computer in front of him on and pulling Twitter up.

An hour into the show, and the inevitable conversation of Valentine’s Day was brought up.

‘So, no midnight visitors for you on Valentine’s night?’ Fiona asked Nick and he shook his head.  
‘Nope, just me and Pig and a takeaway!’  
‘What did you have?’ Matt asked, walking around to Nick’s desk and moving some stuff out of his way.  
‘For what?’ Nick asked, glancing up at Matt and then down at his phone where he was scrolling through Tumblr.  
‘Dinner.’  
‘When?’ Nick asked again.

Matt looked at him as though he’d grown a second head. ‘For Valentine’s Day.’  
‘I didn’t.'

Fiona laughed loudly. ‘You had plans, didn’t you?!’

Nick looked up at her, wishing he’d been paying attention. ‘No! I spent Valentine’s Day night alone!’  
‘You saw someone - you’re being far too cagey!’ Matt agreed and put his hand on Nick’s forehead as Nick blushed furiously and shook Matt’s hand away.  
‘No I’m not! Just me and Pig and a pizza, that’s all!’  
‘Where was the pizza from?’ Fiona wanted to know.  
‘Waitrose.’

‘Oh, do they deliver now?’ Matt asked innocently.

‘Look, you two are just distorting what I say! Let’s play a record!’ Nick suggested, queuing up the next record and heading straight out of the studio to the nearest bathroom.

Two minutes later, when Nick came back, both Fiona and Matt were stood facing the door, grins on their faces and their arms crossed waiting for him.

‘Something wrong?’ Nick asked as innocently as he could, pushing past them.  
‘Who was it?’  
‘Who was what?’   
‘Argh! Just tell us! Even if it’s some juicy celebrity, you know we can keep a secret!’ Fiona encouraged him.  
‘No idea what you’re talking about. Now, if you don’t mind, we’ve got a show to present!’

*** 

Showquizness was Nick’s undoing. The first question was who had missed One Direction’s show in Melbourne on Saturday due to food poisoning. Nick had to obviously pretend he hadn’t known it was Louis, but as the caller on the phone was answering the question, Matt suddenly interjected.

‘Someone says on Twitter that they saw Louis in Primrose Hill on Saturday morning.’ 

Nick looked at Matt. ‘What? I thought you just said he was sick with food poisoning.’ He said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible as his phone suddenly beeped into life. Deliberately not looking at it, Nick kept eye contact with Matt, silently pleading with him to change the subject, shaking his head almost imperceptibly.

‘Obviously that somebody doesn’t know what they are talking about! Poor Louis, food poisoning is awful, especially if he was so sick he had to miss the show.’ Fiona said, realising there was a connection, despite not quite understanding what it was.

Nick shot her a small smile, knowing in the back of his mind that there were now thousands of listeners who were expecting him to slag Louis off, such was their public relationship. ‘Well, not sure the other four would’ve really missed him.’ Nick said. ‘Shall we have a record?’

Nick grabbed his phone and stormed out of the studio. He didn’t even read the messages that were appearing on his phone, he went straight to WhatsApp and immediately sent the words ‘I didn’t mean it’ to Louis.

He sat on a chair outside of the studio, then reading Louis’ various messages.

‘Fuck. FUCK. I was so careful!’   
‘Find out who sent that tweet - we need to get it deleted.’  
‘Oh my god, I’m so dead.’  
‘I can’t believe you said they’d not miss me!’

Nick smiled weakly. ‘Can I make it up to you?’ He asked.  
‘Dick pic. Now. ;-)’

Before Nick had time to respond, Matt appeared next to him. ‘Something I should know?’ He asked with a worried smile.

Nick put his head in his hands, taking a deep breath. ‘We’ve been shagging for a year. Nothing to it other than sex, but he heard the show the other day and wanted to do a pity date so flew home. Nobody knew other than his security guard and Harry, who didn’t even know we had a thing going until Louis told him he was going, but he got found out and his management team have literally torn him to shreds and now this - we’re not even serious, we’ve never been on a date and we’ve never talked about what us shagging means and if people put two and two together now, he’ll have to come out and I know he doesn’t want to and the band will suffer, and it’s a fucking nightmare.’

Matt put a hand on Nick’s shoulder. ‘Sorry. I guessed from the whole dinner debacle earlier that you’d seen someone, but I couldn’t have guessed it would’ve been Louis Tomlinson!’

Nick’s phone bleeped again and he glanced at it, letting out a small laugh when it was Louis demanding to know where his photo was.

*** 

Nick cancelled his meetings and left Broadcasting House at 10.15am, calling Louis as he got outside.

‘Did you manage to get the tweet deleted?’ Nick asked as Louis answered the phone.  
‘Too late. Matt did the damage the moment he opened his stupidly large mouth.’ Louis replied, sounding exhausted.  
‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t see the tweet or I’d have stopped him or done something. He wasn’t to know.’ Nick said, crossing the road as he headed home. ‘What happens now?’  
‘They are flying out the big boss as we speak to talk about how this is all handled. We can brush it under the carpet as much as possible, but I’ve no idea if that’s going to work. And they really don’t want me to come out. I mean, there’s nothing to tell as far as you and I are concerned so, they’ll probably just want to ignore it all.’

Nick stopped in his tracks at the ‘nothing to tell as far as you and I are concerned’ and looked at his reflection in a shop window. ‘Right. Do you want to come out?’  
‘I wouldn’t mind, I hate having to hide who I am, but it’s not like I’m in a relationship so they won’t want to let me.’ Louis replied. ‘Hey, hang on, Haz wants a word.’

Nick grunted, waiting for Harry. 

‘He’s an idiot Nick.’ Were the first words Harry said followed by an ‘Oi!’ from Louis in the background.  
‘He’s a huge, fucking arsehole is what he is.’ Nick said through gritted teeth.  
‘He just opens his mouth and doesn’t think about what he’s saying first.’ Harry said, and Nick could almost feel the glare Harry was giving Louis.  
‘Look, I’m gonna go. I cancelled a meeting, but I think I really should go to it.’  
‘Will you call him later?’ Harry asked.

Nick turned back towards work. ‘I don’t know. See ya popstar.’

*** 

When Nick finally got home after his rearranged meeting and a long PT session at the gym, he let himself check his phone. He’d heard it beep a few times but he was feeling pretty miserable after his call with Louis earlier and wasn’t really in the mood to talk to him.

‘I think we need to talk.’ Was the only message he’d had from Louis. He also had several from Harry.

Putting his phone on the side, Nick decided he needed to give the whole situation a couple of days’ space.

*** 

‘Louis is pretty miserable.’ Harry told him on Wednesday evening / Thursday morning for Harry.   
‘Sure he’ll get over it.’ Nick said, picking at the pizza in front of him. ‘What did management say?’  
‘We are ignoring the whole thing and if anyone asks Matt, he’s agreed to say that he was just winding you up.’  
‘Fair enough. So he’s not coming out then?’  
‘Not right now, no. But he has told them that he wants to and soon.’

Nick nodded before realising Harry couldn’t see him. ‘Right.’

‘Look, I know the two of you think that you’re not dating…'  
‘We’re not dating Haz.’ Nick interrupted him. ‘We fuck when we’re both in the same place at the same time, but that’s it.’  
‘But do you? Is that really all there is to it? Do you want more than that?’  
‘What does it matter? He doesn’t.’  
‘I think he does, but I think he’s too worried that you don’t. Liam pointed out to him earlier, after Louis gave us the full story of the last year, that it sounds like you two are dating.’ Harry said carefully.

Nick was silent for a few moments. ‘What did he say to that?’  
‘Well, he didn’t really. Just glared at Liam and stormed out.’  
‘So mature, that one.’ Nick sighed.  
‘Do you want to?’ Harry asked.  
‘Do I want to what?’  
‘Date him? I dunno, is this just shagging for you, or do you want to get married and have quiff haired babies together?!’ Harry giggled.  
‘Hilarious Haz! I dunno, we talked about going on a date before he flew back to Australia but from what he’s said this week, he clearly just sees us as fuck buddies and nothing else, the date was his suggestion, so I don’t know - I don’t know what he wants.’  
‘But it’s not always about what the other person wants Nick, it’s about what you want too.’ Harry reasoned.  
‘Alright, stop being so clever and grown up would you?!’ Nick laughed. 

*** 

Nick inspected the photograph he’d just taken carefully. When he posted it on Instagram, he wanted to make sure that it was done right. 

He’d finished the Breakfast Show and left straight away. He wasn’t working the next morning as he was off filming and he’d had to have quite a severe haircut. However, it wasn’t as severe as the photograph made it look, but he wanted to give people a scare.

Ok, he wanted to see if he could get a reaction out of Louis.

*** 

On Friday morning, Nick woke to rumours of a cyclone hitting parts of Australia and Twitter and Tumblr were awash with suggestions that Louis and Zayn were on Hamilton Island and were effectively stuck there.

Grabbing his phone, Nick opened Whats App and sent Louis a message.

‘Seen the news re the cyclone and people saying you and the cheek-boned one are marooned. All ok?’

He could see that Louis hadn’t been online for a couple of days, so Nick hoped that Louis would get the message as soon as he could. Changing message, he sent one to Harry.

‘Is he really marooned, or are they both with you?’ Nick asked, and he could see Harry typing back immediately.  
‘They are trying to leave. Cyclone kind of surprised everyone. It’s been a nightmare getting hold of them as there’s been no phone lines for a bit, and internet is sketchy. Bodyguards are with them, but show is in limbo tonight. Not worried about him, are you? ;-)’

‘Oh fuck off popstar!’ Nick laughed out loud, typing. ‘Not in the slightest - just concerned that the world might lose Adonis, that’s all.’  
‘I wouldn’t go that far Grimmy, he’s pretty to look at but he’s hardly Adonis.’  
‘I meant Zayn, wanker.’  
‘Charming. No wonder you and Louis fancy the pants off each other - you’re so alike, it actually scares me.’  
‘Purely physical, remember. Can’t help wanting to jump his bones!’  
‘When they’re back, I’ll let you know.'

*** 

Nick had just left the BBC, having finished his filming, and was heading into a waiting taxi when his phone rang. He saw it was Louis and took a deep breath. They’d not actually spoken since Monday morning and Nick found himself being a little nervous. Slamming the door as he got into the taxi, he pressed Answer.

‘What the fuck have you done to your hair?’ were Louis’ opening words.

Nick burst out laughing. ‘Well, hello to you too. Presume you’re safe and sound and not caught up in a cyclone then?!’  
‘Seriously, tell me you haven’t.’ Louis demanded.  
‘Done what?’ Nick said innocently.  
‘If the quiff is gone, we’re not fucking until it’s grown back.’  
‘Are you threatening me Master Tomlinson?!’ Nick laughed.  
‘Don’t call me that.’ Louis snapped. ‘Have you really had all your hair shaved off?'  
‘Well, I have just been filming for Comic Relief, and they wanted something a bit different…’ Nick trailed off.  
‘No, no, I can’t believe this! Why didn’t you consult me?!’

Nick let out a loud laugh. ‘Consult you?! Didn’t think we were in a place where we consult each other on hair style issues!’  
‘Ouch. Ok, point taken. Tell me.’ Louis said sternly.  
‘Where are you?’ Nick asked. ‘What time is it?’  
‘Why is that relevant?’ Louis wanted to know.  
‘Look, I’m in a taxi. I can’t really talk. I’ll be home in 15 minutes. Can we Skype then?’  
‘You’re not going to tell me, are you?’ Louis groaned.  
‘Nope. I like to keep you on your toes.’ Nick teased.  
‘You always do, you’re too fucking tall and you make me go on tiptoes to kiss you, you fucker.’  
‘Bye babe!’ Nick crowed, ending the call and feeling lighter than he had done in days.

Less than a minute later, his phone beeped.

‘How am I going to come in your hair if the quiff has gone?!’

Nick closed his eyes, his dick immediately twitching at the image. ‘Maybe you’ll just have to come on my face instead.’ He retaliated.  
‘You’re mean.’  
‘Takes one to know one.’  
‘Please, please, just tell me. If it’s all gone, I need to prepare for the shock. I can’t just see it on Skype in all it’s glory.’  
‘Thought you liked it in all its glory?!’  
‘Get your arse home. I want to wank over your face.’

*** 

Nick tripped over Pig three times in the rush to get through the door. 

‘Argh, why do you want to be let out right this minute?!’ He muttered to Pig, throwing open the patio door. ‘Go on then, pee and come back in otherwise I’m going to come in my fucking pants.’ He grumbled. Louis had got started without him and was sending him pictures of his cock, hard and waiting and pictures of his face thrown back in pleasure. 

‘Oh fuck it.’ Nick mumbled, leaving the door open slightly and hurrying to the sofa, opening Skype on his laptop, lying back, opening his jeans and shoving his hand into his pants, the other hand dialling Louis.

‘Took your time!’ Louis snapped. ‘Thank god for that. It’s not gone.’ He said, his tone turning incredibly fond.  
‘I’d get rid of you before I get rid of the quiff!’ Nick gasped, taking Louis in on the screen. He was naked, his hips lazily jerking forward into his hand.  
‘What does that mean?!’ Louis laughed.  
‘Means I’m quite fond of you, I guess.’ Nick admitted, blaming his need to get off for his admission.  
‘I can’t wait to come in your hair. I’m going to make you use my junk instead of hair gel one morning.’  
‘Have you been watching There’s Something About Mary again?!’ Nick laughed, shoving his jeans down his legs and kicking them off his ankles and onto the floor.  
‘Yep! Quite like the thought of you walking around with me in your hair.’ Louis grinned, his hand getting faster. ‘Come on, I’ve been waiting fucking ages for you.’

Nick looked over at his laptop from under his eyelashes. ‘Come on then popstar, I got you off last time, you get me off this time.’  
‘Nope. Not the way we work. Besides, I’ve been doing this for a good 20 minutes and I’ve no idea how I’ve not already come just hearing your voice.’ Louis admitted.  
‘I had to hide a hard on from the taxi driver in my jeans. He thought I was crazy! I must’ve moaned out loud to at least three of your photos. Tease.’ Nick grinned.  
‘Only three times?’ Louis asked, his hand speeding up. ‘Oh, god, I’m close. He groaned suddenly.  
‘I was trying to be quiet in the taxi!’ Nick said, watching Louis’ hand speed up.  
‘You can never be quiet. One of the things I love about you is how loud you can be right in my ear, bending over me and fucking me so hard and hearing you moan my name into my ear.’ Louis whimpered.  
‘And I love how much of a tease you are.’ Nick mumbled, his own hand speeding up.

Louis made a choked off sound as he suddenly froze and Nick watched him come, Louis throwing his head back and stroking himself through it until he was juddery with sensitivity.

‘I can’t wait to see you.’ Louis mumbled, his eyes still closed.

That’s what did it for Nick as he felt his stomach tense and moments later, he came with a shout of Louis’ name on his lips.

It was a good two minutes later when they finally looked at each other on the screen and laughed.

‘Can you come and see me?’ Louis asked, having wiped his stomach down with a nearby t-shirt that Nick really hoped was Louis’ and not anyone else’s. He was lying on his side, his laptop positioned in front of him and Nick was still laying on his back on the sofa, Pig having padded in, taken one look at him and turned away in disgust.

Nick raised an eyebrow. ‘Time travel hasn’t quite been invented yet, little one.’ He smiled.  
‘Less of the little, thank you!’  
‘I can’t come and see you just to have sex.’ Nick said, treading carefully.  
‘I don’t always just want to have sex with you, you know. You could come and see Harry and if we saw each other, then that would be nice.’

Nick looked up at the ceiling and rubbed his eyes. ‘I don’t know Lou. I can’t just take time off without notice, I have to get someone to cover the show…'  
‘Do you know how much shit I’m in for you?’ Louis bristled.  
‘I know! I’ll see what I can do. But I think…'  
‘Think what?’   
‘We can’t keep doing this.’ Nick told him, watching as Louis froze momentarily. ‘I, I don’t want…fuck, this is hard…I don’t just want this to be sex anymore.’

Louis was silent for a minute as Nick watched him, wishing by the second he’d kept his mouth shut.

‘I can’t Nick, I’m sorry.’ Louis eventually said sadly.

Nick nodded, finding it hard to breathe all of a sudden. ‘Ok. Look, when you’re home, we’ll talk, yeah.’  
‘I’m not back until Easter weekend.’ Louis said, looking worried.  
‘Then we’ll catch up then. Look, Pig’s giving me the evil eye, so I’d best dash. I’ll catch you later, yeah?’ Nick asked.  
Louis nodded. ‘Ok, see you Nick.’

Before Nick had a chance to say anything else, the call was ended.

*** 

‘What did you do?’ Harry asked as Nick picked up the phone.  
‘I’m guessing you’ve forgotten your manners?’ Nick retorted.  
‘Sorry. Hello. How are you? What did you do to him?’  
‘Hi mate, I’m fine, thanks for asking. I told him I didn’t want it to just be sex anymore and he said he couldn’t do more and then we said goodbye.’  
‘Oh.’ Harry replied, sounding a little deflated.  
‘What did he tell you?’  
‘Nothing, but he’s been walking around like a bear with a sore head for the past few hours so I guessed you might have something to do with it.’  
‘I did what you thought I should - I told him I wanted more and he doesn’t want that Harry and I can’t just keep going back for sex. It’s not going anywhere and I might at least try and find someone who wants to be with me for me, not just the size of my…'  
‘ENOUGH!’ Harry shouted.

Nick laughed. ‘I was going to say fingers!’  
‘Oh. Right, ok. Sorry, carry on.’ Harry apologised.  
‘There’s nothing else to say really.’  
‘Why don’t you come and see me, and whilst you’re here, you can talk to him and sort things out.’  
‘He asked me to come and see him. Whilst we were having, well, erm … ok, we were having Skype sex … don’t say anything Harold … he said that one of the things he loves about me was … well, you don’t need to know what it was, but it was the way he phrased it - one of the things he loves about me, and I thought perhaps there was something bigger that he wasn’t saying, but I don’t think there was. And I said I couldn’t just drop everything, so he told me he’d done that for me, well, not in so many words, but he did, didn’t he? But I just can’t drop everything for someone that doesn’t want anything more to do with me than sex.’ Nick rushed out.

‘God, he’s more of an idiot than I thought.’ Harry sighed.  
‘Tell me about it.’  
‘Come on, come out and see us. Don’t tell him you’re coming, I won’t say anything…'  
‘No, Harry, that’s not going to work. I’m too old to be playing games with boys like Louis.’  
‘That’s a little harsh Nick.’ Harry reprimanded him.  
‘Perhaps, but maybe I just need to find someone who is in the same country as me, and wants to have something to do with me other than just sex and who isn’t going to play mind games.’

Nick heard Harry take a deep breath. ‘Ok. I think you’re both idiots, for the record, and I’m going to tell him the same thing, but I’m not going to force either of you to do something you don’t want to. Just … he’s 23 Nick, we’re all young and he doesn’t like people to know he’s fucking vulnerable all of the time and actually just wants someone to love him.’  
‘Well, then perhaps he should give me a chance.’ Nick snapped and hung up. 

*** 

Nick was lying in bed later that evening, going over the conversation he’d had with Louis. He wished so much he’d not said anything, but he’d meant what he’d said to Harry, he was too old to be playing games. 

As he turned his phone and light off, turning over to try and get some sleep, his phone beeped. Nick shut his eyes in frustration. With a sigh, he turned back over, grabbed his phone and then lay back on his side again. It was Louis.

‘It’s not that I don’t want to be more than just sex. I just can’t give you more than that.’

Nick sighed again. ‘We’ve done this for over a year now. We’re already something. I don’t just want to be the person you call on when you you're horny.’

He watched as the bubble in Whats App tapped away before the next message appeared.

‘I meant what I said about going on a date when I got back to England when I left on Saturday morning.’  
‘I’m not asking for official dates Lou.’  
‘I just can’t date you - I’m not out, I’m not going to be allowed to be out for god knows how long and it’s not fair for me to ask you to do a whole secret relationship thing, but I’m a selfish fucker.’

Nick frowned at the screen. Louis was confusing at the best of times, but now he was contradicting himself every message. 

‘Do you want a relationship with me?’ Nick finally typed, just wanting to get an answer.

The writing bubble appeared, then disappeared and reappeared again. ‘I can’t.’  
‘Not an answer. Regardless of whether you can or can’t, do you want it?’  
‘Yes, you fucking idiot. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be telling you I can’t, would I? I’d be telling you no, of course not, you’re a smelly old man.'

Nick laughed, he could almost see the indignation on Louis’ face.

‘But why do you want me? I’m away a gazillion per cent of the time, I’m rude to you, I’m not out - I’m a great fuck, you tell me that every time, so I guess there’s that…I just don’t get it.’

Nick read the message and exited the app, going into his Contacts folder and calling Louis.

‘If you’re ringing to tell me I’m not a great fuck, I’m going to hang up on you.’ Louis laughed as he answered the phone.  
‘You’re not just not great, you’re fucking awful!’ Nick shot back.  
‘How did this happen? A week ago, you’d shagged my brains out and I was on my way back to Australia, and now I feel like we’re a proper fighting couple and I hate fights, I hate this stupid not knowing where I stand.’ Louis told Nick.

‘You got seen. If you’d not been seen, nobody would be any wiser, you’d not have got bollocked by your management team, Matt wouldn’t have opened his big mouth on the radio and we’d not have needed to have this conversation.’  
‘So you’re telling me it’s entirely my fault?!’  
‘Yep, it is!’ Nick laughed.  
‘So you want to see where this could go, aside from the sex?’ Louis asked and Nick could hear the nerves in his voice.  
‘Yes, love, I do. We might be horrible together, we might fight all the time and we might find out that fucking is the only good thing about us, but … I want to find out.’  
‘Even though we have to do it in complete secret?’  
‘Yes, Louis, even though we have to be a complete secret.’ Nick clarified.  
‘Do you think fighting could lead to hotter sex?’  
‘I think there’s every chance!’ Nick grinned down the phone.

*** 

‘So, let me get this straight,’ Fiona began on Monday morning. ‘You have been having sex with Louis Tomlinson, from One Direction, for over a year, and last weekend, he missed a show for you to fly home for Valentine’s Day for sex, has got into loads of trouble, and now next week, you’re taking a couple of days off to basically go and have more sex?’  
‘And go on a date.’ Nick grinned at Fiona who looked shell shocked at his news.  
‘I can’t believe I didn’t know this! You’re not sneaky! You’re the world’s worst gossip and you kept it from us!’ She exclaimed.  
‘About other people, not about myself love.’ He reminded her.  
‘So, how long are you going for?’  
‘I’m just going to Tokyo for three nights.’  
‘And Matt agreed this? At such short notice?’  
‘It’s kind of his fault that the whole thing got let out of the bag, so he owes me.’  
‘And whose sitting in for you?’  
‘Greg is.’  
‘And who will do his show?!’  
‘Don’t know - Matt’s sorting that out.’  
‘Louis Tomlinson? The pretty one from One Direction that you’ve said for ages that you can’t stand?’

Nick nodded. ‘I could hardly start singing his praises, could I?’  
‘The Keith Lemon thing about him being pretty and you agreeing makes a bit more sense now!’  
Nick blushed slightly. ‘Alright, can we stop this now?!’ He laughed.  
‘When are you going?’  
‘There’s a flight next Friday afternoon at 1pm, which gets me to Tokyo on Saturday morning at like, half nine and then I leave Monday morning, so I’ll be back in on Tuesday morning. I’ll be fucking knackered!'  
Fiona raised an eyebrow. ‘Of course, you could’ve just waited until they’d been somewhere a bit closer.’  
‘I could, yes.’ Nick agreed with a grin. ‘But I’m not going to!’

***

‘Nervous about tomorrow’s show?’ Louis messaged Nick, late on Monday evening.  
‘Ridiculously nervous. Ed’ll be great but Taylor can be uber pro and not sure if she’ll get the vibe of the show.’ Nick typed back, turning his light off and then turning over in bed, making sure his phone was on charge and his alarm was on.  
‘Sure it’ll be fine - you’re very easy to talk to ;-)’  
‘How would you know? I open my mouth and you stick your dick in it! ;-)’ Nick replied with a small smile. He could barely keep his eyes open, but he could still sass Louis half asleep.  
‘That’s because it’s a very lovely mouth.’   
‘Why thank you. You’re too kind.’  
‘Kind of wish you were here now to put your dick somewhere else.’ Louis typed.  
‘Kind of?’  
‘Ok, I’m hard just thinking about it!’

Nick sighed and fell onto his back. ‘There is literally nothing I’d like more than to get you off right now, but I have to sleep, it’s 10.30pm here and I have to sleep otherwise I’m never going to get through the next few days.’

‘:-(‘

Nick laughed. ‘I’ve got Ed and Taylor in the morning, Elle Style Awards tomorrow which I’m presenting and the Brits on Wednesday night and a show on Thursday morning.’ Nick winced. He simultaneously was nervous and looking forward to the next 48 hours.

‘Boo. And that’s ok - I have to get up soon anyway. First show tonight, already Tuesday here.’  
‘Wish me luck for tomorrow?’  
‘You don’t need it. Catch you later.’

Nick watched as Louis’ status went to offline and with a sigh, he turned his own phone off and settled to sleep.

*** 

Nick was incredibly nervous the next morning, and was awake stupidly early. He took Pig out for a longer walk than normal, trying to get rid of the nervous energy he had for the morning’s show. 

‘So, this morning, we’re going to play a game called ‘Ed, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. See, it’s a play on their names…ok, never mind!’ Nick laughed, getting a weird look from his guests. ‘We are going to show you various body parts of famous people, and you have to guess who they are.’ Nick explained, as the first one came up on the screen.

Nick grinned over at Matt as he got the third one in a row. ‘I’m serious, I didn’t know who you were going to use, and I’m not cheating!’ He cried as Ed opened his mouth to accuse him of exactly that.  
‘Not sure you’ll get the next one.’ Matt told him with a smirk and Nick glared at him, wondering exactly what Matt was about to do.

Nick looked back at the screen as a very close up photo of a pair of thighs appeared and he immediately scowled over at Matt, who grinned back sweetly.

‘So, any ideas?’ Nick asked Ed and Taylor. ‘I haven’t got a clue.’ He smirked over to Matt.  
‘Oh, I think you probably know whose these are.’ Matt smiled in reply. ‘Maybe even …’

Thankfully, Ed started talking over Matt. ‘Louis Tomlinson?’  
‘Good guess! What makes you say that?’ Nick asked.   
‘He’s got, like, these amazing thighs – you could probably crack a walnut between them!’ Ed laughed and Nick couldn’t help but blush slightly, glaring at Matt, already plotting his downfall in his mind.  
‘Matt – is that right?’ Nick asked, trying to ignore the fact his body was trying desperately to react to Louis’ thighs crushing him.  
‘Yep, Tommo’s thighs. Well done Ed, point to you.’

*** 

‘Are you doing this on purpose?!’ Nick muttered crossly to Matt as the next song played and Ed and Taylor sat chatting away quietly.  
‘Just wanted to see how you’d react and to see how well you know him, that’s all!’ Matt laughed.  
‘Don’t. Unless you want to see me with a raging hard on for the rest of the show…’ Nick grinned.  
‘Ew! No, I do not!’

*** 

Nick hosted the Elle Style Awards that evening. He’d not managed to get hold of Louis at all, at least to speak to, all day and having gone from only messaging when they wanted sex with the other, they were now messaging each other a lot more of the time. He was a little drunk by the time he left the Awards, and fell into bed in the hotel room that he’d been offered.

Checking his phone, Nick saw there was one message from Louis. It had been sent about half an hour ago. Nick frowned, checking what time it was in Japan.

‘Just got up. Body fucked. Wish it had actually been fucked.’

Nick laughed quietly. ‘Why so bad?’  
‘Mark.’

Nick sighed. He knew Mark was their personal trainer and worked them extremely hard in the gym, and now all he could picture was a sweaty Louis in the gym. He told Louis that in his next message.  
‘Can think of better ways to get hot and sweaty ;-)’ Louis replied.  
‘Don’t. I have to get up in about 5 hours and if I think of that, I’ll be calling you on Skype to watch you jack off.’ Nick messaged back, his body already showing interest in that.  
‘Got to go to some stupid meeting. Jack off and send me photos please!’

Laughing, Nick sent a winky face emoji back and put his phone down. He shifted onto his back, slipping his hand under the duvet and into his boxers, closing his eyes and tipping his head back as he worked himself slowly, imagining Louis writhing above him. As his cock grew hard and hot in his hand, he grabbed his phone, snapping a photo of his dick and sending it straight to Louis. ‘See what you do to me?’ He added.

When there was no immediate response, Nick threw down his phone, bending his knees so his feet were flat on the bed and he thrust up hard into his hand, quicker and quicker with each thrust and before he knew it, he was groaning out Louis’ name as he came hard, hot white come spilling over his hand and his stomach and he took a few moments to get his breathing back, before he grabbed his phone again, snapping another photo of his softening cock in his hand, covered in come and sent it to Louis. ‘Well, that was embarrassingly quick!’

*** 

When Nick woke the next morning, there were 14 photos of Louis – some of his cock, others of him fingering himself (Nick had no idea how he’d even been able to position the camera as he did to take the photos) and two last ones of come splattered over Louis’ chest.

*** 

The Brit Awards were a night that all BBC R1 staff generally attended, and Nick knew that at least they’d all be in the same boat with hangovers the next day. Showbot was particularly on form that morning, almost out sassing Nick. When he talked about who he’d be hanging out with at the after parties, Showbot asked him ‘Are you going to hang around with a boy band member half your age and then drag him on the radio the next morning? If you bring the cheeky Irish one all is forgiven.'

Nick just glared at Matt who smiled sweetly back at him.

***

Nick put his head on the desk as Gemma finished her show. Normally, they’d do a hand over, but Nick had no idea how he was going to manage his show. He’d finally gone to bed around 4am, so he’d had 2 hours of sleep and he was certain he was dying. After Tina had read the news, he managed another few minutes of not having to talk to anyone by playing 

‘Well, good morning everybody. It’s coming up to 6.35am.’ Nick managed, thanking Gemma for the previous show. 

Nick knew how hung-over he sounded.

‘I’m here, I’m ready, we can do this. Matt Fincham, the good captain, sailing the breakfast show ship for us this morning.’

Nick was certain it was one of the slowest shows he’d ever done. Every time he looked at the clock, he could’ve sworn it was going backwards. He knew they were slightly delusional when they started talking about their favourite mammals after the Waking Up Song when somebody had requested David Attenborough. Something to do with camels being sassy and spitting when they were irritated and Nick found his phone, sending Louis a picture of a camel and a wink.

‘At least I don’t sound like shit this morning!’ Louis immediately replied with.  
‘So you’re listening?’  
‘Nope. Guesswork ;-)’

*** 

By the end of the show on Friday morning, Nick couldn’t wait to get on the plane to Japan, if for no other reason than to sleep. But after Nick had been travelling for 10 hours to Tokyo, he was sick of flying. He was in business class so the general public had largely left him alone, but he was bored out of his mind. He was being collected by their security, as Louis had been told in no circumstances was he allowed to be seen at the airport again. Nick arrived at 9.35am on Saturday morning.

‘He may not show it, being all cool, calm and collected as he’s trying to be, but he’s really pleased you’ve flown out.’ Harry told him on the phone as the car drove him from the airport to the hotel.  
‘Is he sending you death stares right now?!’ Nick laughed.  
‘No! He’s in the other room. However, Liam is giving me evil looks.’  
‘I’m going to have to pass some weird, initiation, friendship test, aren’t I?’ Nick groaned.

‘Yes you are!’ Nick heard Liam yell. ‘Before you get to Louis!’

*** 

‘Oh my god, you were serious?’ Nick asked as he walked into a hotel room with the four members of One Direction he wasn’t sleeping with in it, his heart suddenly beating loudly as he faced four very serious looking young men.

Niall was the first to laugh. ‘No, of course not!’ He grinned. ‘Just, you know, remember that we know where you live and we will kill you if you break his heart.’  
‘And what about if he breaks mine?’ Nick asked with a small smile.  
‘We’ll kick his arse for you, don’t worry.’ Liam smiled.

As Nick opened his mouth to reply, there was a loud banging as the door flew open. ‘Ok, you lot, what are you doing to him?’ Louis grinned at them all, striding straight over to Nick and kissing him fiercely.

‘Wow, erm, ok, perhaps we should leave.’ Liam suggested to the others as Nick wrapped his arms around Louis’ neck.

He was barely aware of the others leaving as Louis walked backwards until his back was against the nearest wall, moved Nick’s hands onto his arse and he all but jumped into Nick’s arms, leaning against the wall.

Nick pulled back. ‘Hello to you too.’  
‘Hi.’ Louis grinned widely.  
‘I thought we were going to take this slow, like, go for dinner before we jumped into bed together.’  
‘Well, it’s like mid morning and I can’t wait until tonight, it’s too late for breakfast, so I thought you could fuck me and we can start over properly tomorrow morning after dinner tonight.’ Louis smiled.

Nick shrugged. ‘Sounds like a plan!’  
‘Thank god for that!’ Louis grinned, wrapping his legs tightly around Nick’s waist. ‘Now you can carry me to my bed!’  
‘Bossy!’ Nick grinned back, leaning forward to kiss Louis again. Making sure he was able to carry Louis’ weight, he moved them away from the wall. ‘Where’s the bed?!’ He laughed, breaking the kiss.

‘Door’s behind you.’ Louis replied breathily, leaning back and starting to undo the buttons to Nick’s shirt, which in turn made Nick almost lose his balance and he stumbled backwards, clutching at Louis’ arse in a vain attempt to not drop him but before he knew it, they were both sprawled over the floor.

‘I’m so sorry!’ Nick burst out laughing as Louis looked at him in disbelief.  
‘I cannot fucking believe you dropped me, you arse!’ He grinned, launching himself at Nick again, straddling his hips and tearing at the shirt.

‘Woah! Slow down tiger! I can’t do this on the floor with the possibility of your band mates walking in on us!’ Nick told him, pushing Louis up away from him. ‘Come on, let’s find the bed.’

They finally got to the bed, stopping for kisses along the way and Louis was shucking off his own t-shirt and undoing his jeans as he pushed Nick down onto the bed and wriggling out of his jeans.

‘Did you not bother with no underwear on purpose?!’ Nick mocked gasped as he realised there was nothing under Louis’ jeans.

‘Yep. I kept thinking of you though so kept getting a pointed look from Liam.’ Louis grinned, nipping at Nick’s ear as his fingers made fast work of Nick’s fly and he pushed Nick’s jeans down his legs, moving his own legs so Nick could kick them off his legs and the bed.  
‘Did you? What were you thinking about?’ Nick asked, running his hands down Louis’ tanned, soft back, resting his hands on Louis’ arse and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Louis let out a groan as he ground his hips against Nick’s boxer clad groin. ‘Get these off.’ He growled into Nick’s ear and Nick’s stomach lurched with lust.

Nick let go of Louis and shoved his boxers down his legs, kicking them off towards the pool of clothes gathered at the foot of the bed. ‘Come on, what were you thinking of?’ He asked again, bending his knees and spreading his legs so that Louis was resting between the V of his legs.

‘Just how much I couldn’t wait for you to be inside me.’ Louis panted. ‘I fucking missed you.’ He admitted, rolling his hips down again.  
‘Come on then, find the lube and let me open you up and I’ll be so deep inside you that you’ll barely remember you own name.’ Nick promised.

Louis grinned widely, shifting up the bed and leaning into his bedside table.

‘What the fuck…?’ He began, pulling out a tube larger than the lube one that Louis had in there. ‘Haz!’ He laughed, showing it to Nick.

Nick frowned. ‘Is that chocolate body paint?’  
‘Yep!’ He laughed, raising an eyebrow. ‘Game?’  
‘Hell yes!’

Grabbing the lube at the same time, Louis then shuffled back between Nick’s legs. He dumped the lube by the pillow, hoping that they wouldn’t lose it when they needed it and he opened the tube of chocolate body paint.

Smirking at Nick, he drizzled a line down Nick’s chest before getting to his groin and squeezing out a large blob just above the top of Nick’s cock. He capped the tube and chucked it onto the bed before he moved up Nick’s body, being careful to avoid the body paint and kissed Nick deeply, their tongues battling wildly against the others.

‘Get on with it then.’ Nick smiled at Louis.  
‘Someone’s impatient.’ Louis replied.  
‘Always impatient for you.’ Nick told him fondly.  
‘Well, I am rather fabulous!’  
‘Oh my god! Just get on with it!’ Nick laughed loudly before his laugh died in his throat as he felt Louis’ tongue on his chest.

By the time Louis got down to Nick’s groin, Nick was rock hard and wasn’t entirely sure how much longer he was going to be able to last. He gasped loudly as Louis took him into his mouth.

‘Missed you too.’ He groaned in reply to Louis’ earlier statement, and Louis sucked harder. ‘Fuck, no, I don’t want to before you. Come here.’ Nick panted, all but pulling Louis’ mouth from him and up the bed.

He managed to roll Louis onto his back before he pushed his hips hard into Louis’.  
‘Want to feel you come all over me.’ He told Louis breathily.  
‘So want to come in your hair!’ Louis grinned.  
‘Later, promise.’ Nick moaned, gripping hold of the head board above Louis’ head and thrusting harder and harder against Louis’ hips.

Moments later, he was unable to contain it any longer and he came with a low moan over Louis. Louis kept thrusting up and his body tensed as he called out Nick’s name and he sagged down onto the bed under the weight of Nick.

Eventually, Nick mustered up the energy to roll off of Louis and using one arm, he pulled Louis to him. Louis rested his head on Nick’s chest.

‘Tired?’ Louis asked softly.  
‘Fucking knackered.’ Nick laughed.

*** 

Nick woke mid afternoon as Louis clambered out of bed, tripping over their clothes in the process.

‘What time is it?’ Nick asked gruffly.  
‘Around 3pm. Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.’ Louis smiled over his shoulder as he headed to the bathroom. ‘I’ve got to head off to the show soon though.'  
‘That’s ok. Did we fall asleep, like, midway through this morning?!’ Nick asked, rubbing his eyes and hauling himself up into a sitting position.

Louis flushed the toilet, washed his hands and headed back to Nick. ‘No, you fell asleep, old man that you are. Honestly, I don’t know what I see in you - falling asleep half way through sex!’ He grinned, sliding in beside Nick.

‘Oi. Flew hours and hours because you wanted to see me.’ Nick smiled, pulling Louis towards him.  
‘Wasn’t just me.’ Louis mumbled.  
‘Harry always wants to see me too.’ Nick grinned sleepily.  
‘Ha ha.’ Louis smiled sarcastically.  
‘Do you want me just to hang here?’ Nick asked, running his hands through his hair.  
‘No, come to the show.’ Louis told him, rooting through a suitcase for something that was clean. He picked up a t-shirt, sniffed it, pulled a face and threw it into a pile of other clothes on the floor which Nick presumed all needed washing.  
‘Sure? What happens if someone sees me?’

Louis shrugged his shoulders. ‘Came to see Harry, didn’t you?’ He laughed.

*** 

After the show, they were seated at a table in a quiet corner of the restaurant in the hotel, and they’d ordered food.

‘So, who’s covering for you?’ Louis asked, buttering a piece of toast.  
‘Greg. Thank god. I’m missing loads of good guests for you.’ Nick winked at him.  
‘Terribly sorry I’m interrupting your social life.’  
‘That’s ok, you’ll just have to make it up to me later on.’ Nick grinned.

Silence fell over the table and both men smiled weakly at the other.

‘So, this is kind of awkward, isn’t it?’ Nick asked, sipping his wine.  
Louis nodded. ‘ I don’t know how to date you. I don’t really know how to date anyone, I’ve never really done it.’

Nick laughed. ‘What do you mean, you’ve never really done it?! Of course you have!’

Louis shook his head. ‘No, I haven’t. There was Hannah at school, who I wasn’t really into because I knew I was gay, but I was trying not to be, and then there was Eleanor whose been a beard for god knows how many years and I’ve never dated anyone. Not really much of a catch, am I?!’ He laughed quietly.  
‘Nah, not really. One fifth of like the biggest boy band in the world, gazillionaire, quite easy on the eyes, not really a catch, no.’ Nick teased.  
Louis stuck his tongue out at Nick.  
‘Yes, also, very mature.’

*** 

Before Nick knew it, it was Monday morning and his flight to London was in less than 4 hours time.

So far, nobody in the management team seemed to have found out about Nick’s visit and he hoped it stayed that way for Louis’ sake. They’d had a long discussion the night before about what Louis thought of them for screwing them all over so royally. It turned out that if Louis came out himself, both he and the other boys would lose out finically. Louis’ only real hope was somebody completely unrelated to the band and who didn’t know them at all discovered something and let the cat out of the bag. That was the only loophole in the contract where they wouldn’t lose a substantial amount of money each.

Nick wasn’t sure how he’d managed to keep his temper. He felt it was incredibly selfish and greedy and it wasn’t how people should be treated, famous or not, rich or poor.

He was having to say goodbye to Louis at the hotel so they didn’t run the risk of anyone seeing them together. Nobody had even seemed to realise he was in Japan, so he’d not had to use the excuse of visiting Harry either.

‘So, Easter then?’ Nick asked, looming over the sofa where Louis was sat sulking about the fact he wasn’t allowed to go to the airport with Nick.

‘Yeah. If we survive that long.’  
Nick raised an eyebrow. ‘We?’  
Louis blushed immediately. ‘I didn’t mean us as in like, well, a relationship - we haven’t even talked about that! I meant we being me and the boys and the pressures of tour, that’s all.’ He tried to clarify, jumping up red faced.  
Nick nodded and smiled. ‘I’ll see you at Easter then.’ He repeated. He didn’t want to get into a long or heavy goodbye. He just wanted to say bye and leave and not think about how much he was going to miss Louis.

*** 

Nick landed at 1.20pm on Monday afternoon, having flown for 12 and a half hours. Going straight home, he crashed straight into bed and didn’t wake up until 4.30am on Tuesday morning. As he stumbled out of bed, Nick saw there were a couple of messages from Louis and one from Harry. Having a long shower to wake himself up, Nick read them as he did his teeth.

‘Are you back? Kind of miss your stupid face.’ Nick laughed, seeing it was sent the previous afternoon. The second one read ‘Seriously? Did you get back ok?’ Harry’s message simply said ‘He’s worried about you – it’s sickening!’

Nick just about managed to get through the show without falling asleep, despite the fact he could barely keep his eyes open, even with Matt and Fiona plying him with about a million cups of coffee. James Bay was in the Live Lounge with Fearne, but he knew that he had to go home and collapse otherwise he’d never make the show the next day.

It was gone 2pm, though, when Nick finally got to go home, Matt having needed to go through several ideas with him, and then suggesting lunch at a nearby pub. Nick reasoned that if he went to bed too early, he’d never be able to sleep all night, so perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing to stay awake a bit longer. Aimee had dropped Pig off whilst he’d been at work that morning and he was quite frankly excited about seeing her.

Louis had been sending various WhatsApp messages in the last half an hour, wanting to know where he was and whether they could Skype but Nick barely had the energy to read them, let alone reply to them. As his taxi whisked him home, he shot off a ‘Going home now. Need to sleep for a week.’ message to Louis, and the next thing he knew, the taxi driver was telling him they were at his flat.

Nick paid the taxi driver, digging his keys out of his pocket and walking up to the front door. As he opened the door, he immediately froze, hearing that the television was on.

‘Fuck.’ He muttered to himself. Only he could get burglars who would have a rest and watch some television! It was only as he went to pull his phone out of his pocket, that he noticed a pair of shoes haphazardly lying in the middle of the floor. They looked suspiciously familiar.

‘Are you kidding me?’ He sighed, shutting the door behind him. He dropped his keys and phone onto the small table in the hallway and slowly opened the lounge door.

‘Er, hello?’ He asked, spotting Louis sat at his dining table on his laptop as Pig heard his voice and practically sprinted from the kitchen to get to him. ‘Hi Pig.’ He said distractedly as she lay at his feet on her back, panting loudly.

‘Jesus Christ Nick! Warn a guy!’ Louis gasped, jumping up from his chair in fright.  
‘What are you doing here?’ Nick snapped, bending down to pet Pig.  
‘Surprise!’ Louis grinned taking a step towards Nick and then slowing down as he saw the look on Nick’s face. ‘Or not.’  
‘Are you messing with me? What the hell are you doing here?’ Nick asked again, stopping and folding his arms across his chest. ‘I got back from fucking Japan yesterday because you were oh so bloody desperate to see me so I flew half way around the world to see you and I come back and my body is so fucked with tiredness, and you land on my doorstep a day and a half later?!’ Nick cried.

Louis pulled a face. ‘So glad I made the fucking effort to come and see you.’ He snapped back.  
‘What?! Why are you here?’ Nick asked angrily, shoving his jacket off his shoulders and throwing it onto one of the sofas. Pig looked between Nick and Louis, seemingly picking up that something was wrong.  
‘Well, I thought it would be a nice surprise, but apparently I was wrong.’ Louis grimaced, turning his back to Nick and picking up his laptop, shoving it into a bag and it was only then that Nick noticed several suitcases by the table. He took a deep breath and asked again. ‘Why are you here?’

Louis didn’t say anything, just continued slamming things into a nearby bag and Nick could see he was biting his bottom lip hard. ‘I’ll just go.’ He finally muttered as he attempted to zip his bag shut.

‘Louis. What are you doing here? Aren’t you in enough trouble for going AWOL two weeks ago?’ Nick asked, quietly.  
‘We’ve got a break, we all came back this morning and I thought it would be nice to see you, but turns out I’m an idiot.’ Louis mumbled, shoving his arms into a coat and picking up a bag. ‘I’ll get Alberto to pick up the rest later.’ He told Nick, pushing past him and heading into the hallway.

‘Woah, woah! Oi, Tommo. Just wait!’ Nick cried, grabbing one of Louis’ arms as it swung angrily past him.  
‘Get off Nick. I’m going, alright.’  
‘No, don’t. It’s just I got home yesterday and you didn’t say a thing about you boys coming home – I flew all that fucking way to see you for like 48 stupid hours and I needn’t have bothered!’

Louis spun around to face Nick angrily. ‘Oh, I’m sorry you fucking bothered to fly all the way to Japan – not like you even paid for the flight, is it?!’ He snapped.  
‘Don’t you throw that at me – I told you I’d pay for it, you insisted.’  
‘Well, if this is the thanks I get, I shouldn’t have done. I’ll know for next time. Not that there will probably be a next time.’ Louis said bitterly, shaking Nick’s hand from his arm and heading for the door. As he got his hand on the handle, he looked back at Nick. ‘I missed you, alright? Although clearly the feeling isn’t mutual, so I’m just going to go and you never have to worry about it again.’ He said, yanking the door open and storming down the few steps into the street.

Nick closed his eyes and actually banged his head into the nearest wall. ‘Fucking arrogant twatish drama queen.’ He muttered, taking a deep breath before following Louis onto the pavement.

‘Don’t be so fucking stupid, come back inside.’ He hollered down the street as Louis walked quickly towards the main road, but he completely ignored Nick.

‘Argh!’ Nick cried in frustration. He slammed his front door and walked quickly after Louis.  
‘Just leave me alone.’ Louis hissed as Nick caught him up quickly.  
‘Do you really want to do this in the middle of a street where anyone could see us?’ Nick hissed back.  
‘There’s nothing to be done. I’ve already text Alberto to come and pick me up.’  
‘Stop being such a fucking drama queen Louis.’ Nick snapped walking around Louis and stopping dead in front of him.

Louis glared up at him. ‘Move. And I am not a drama queen.’ He snapped back.  
‘Really? You do so many things for effect! You let me fly all the way to Japan and back over 3 days and fuck up my sleeping pattern just to have sex!’   
‘No, I wanted you to come to Japan because I fucking missed you, you twat, although god only knows what I was thinking.’  
‘Let’s just go back inside. Please.’ Nick pleaded. ‘I don’t want a row in the middle of the street where everyone can see us and speculate. At least until Alberto arrives.’ 

Louis glared up at him. ‘Fine.’ He said, turning around and striding back towards Nick’s flat.

As Nick followed him, he patted his pocket to find his key and his heart sank. He’d left it on the table in the hallway. ‘Fuck.’ He muttered.

Louis looked over his shoulder. ‘What?’  
‘I may, erm, have left my key indoors.’ Nick mumbled.  
‘Oh my god, you really are as stupid as you look.’ Louis scowled. ‘You clearly don’t care about anything if you couldn’t even remember to pick up your stupid keys.’  
‘Oh, I’m sorry, I was kind of had something else, a bit more important on my mind.’ Nick retorted, looking around, wondering why he’d never bothered to put a spare key outside. ‘Believe it or not, you were kind of the priority, not my keys.’ He said, looking at one of the windows and then realising Pig was locked inside. ‘Maybe Pig could let us in!’ He said excitedly.

Louis sat down on the bottom step and laughed. ‘Yeah, a dog is going to open the door and let us in!’ He said, beginning to see the funny side of it.  
‘She might! She’s a very clever dog!’ Nick huffed, banging on the door. ‘Pig! Come on girl, come and let us in!’ He called through the door.  
‘Oh my god, you’re a bloody idiot.’ Louis laughed as Nick turned and glared at him. ‘What?! You are! She can’t open the door and even if she could, should you really be encouraging her to learn to open the door? She can’t even go through the night without weeing everywhere or needing letting out, so opening the door is a big ask!’  
‘Don’t be mean to her. Shut up.’ Nick said, a hint of a smile on his face. 

When it was apparent that Nick wasn’t going to get Pig to open the door, he walked down the few steps and sat down next to Louis.

Lightly, he shoved Louis’ shoulder with his own. ‘It’s not that I’m not pleased to see you, you know?’ He said quietly, grateful that the street was completely empty of people.  
‘Really? Got a funny way of showing it.’ Louis muttered, glancing up at Nick through his eyelashes.  
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back to England?’ Nick asked.  
‘I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t know how you being in Japan would be – nobody knew about us two weeks ago and now we’re supposed to be trying to date, and I wanted to know if you were serious.’  
‘I think flying to Japan for two nights is pretty serious Lou.’ Nick smiled and then jumped up as he saw his neighbour walking towards them, a slightly confused grin on her face. ‘Sophie! You are a lifesaver!’ He cried.  
‘Well, hello to you as well Nick! How exactly am I a lifesaver?!’ She laughed as she stopped in front of them. ‘Hi.’ She said to Louis. Louis smiled carefully at her. 

‘I’ve locked myself out – could I grab my spare key?’ Nick asked.  
‘Of course you can! How did you manage that?’ She laughed, pulling her keys out of her handbag and handing it to Nick, Nick’s key being colour coded green.  
‘Oh, erm, just wasn’t thinking when we left, that’s all.’ Nick said, taking them and opening the door. Pig raced out to meet them, weaving in and out of Nick’s legs and then licking at Louis’ face before he stood up. ‘Thank you so much! We’d better dash…’ He trailed off as Louis got up and walked into the hallway. ‘Thanks so much again. I’ll drop round later maybe?’   
‘That would be lovely, haven’t seen you in ages.’ Sophie replied with a smile and then heading towards her own front door.

Nick closed the door behind him and Louis watched him warily. ‘Don’t worry, she won’t have a clue who you are. She met Harry once and just thought he was an extremely polite young man and when she cornered me the next day to ask if I was dating Harry, she literally had no idea who he was and had never heard of him!’ Nick smiled.

*** 

‘So, I had an interesting conversation with your neighbour this morning.’ Louis opened with as Nick came out of the bathroom, ready for bed on Wednesday evening.  
‘Sophie?’ Nick questioned, taking his glasses off, putting them on the bedside table and sliding into bed beside Louis.  
‘Yeah. She genuinely has no idea who I am, does she?’ He asked, lying down opposite Nick on his own pillow.  
Nick grinned. ‘No, I know that must be gutting for you – somebody not knowing who you are!’   
‘Oi! I’m not that egotistical!’ Louis replied. ‘It’s quite nice actually!’  
‘What, not being recognised?’  
Louis nodded. ‘I’ve no idea how Harry deals with it all. I can at least get around without too much trouble. Anyway, she was asking, like, careful questions but was clearly trying to find out if we were shagging!’

Nick raised an eyebrow. ‘What?!’ He laughed.  
‘Well, I hardly came out and told her we were!’  
‘Thank god – don’t think we need to discuss our sex life with anyone!’ Nick blushed. ‘She’s really nice though. Quite nice to have some normal people around.’  
‘She asked what I did for a living! I told her I sang a bit with Harry but she didn’t look impressed in the slightest!’  
‘Sang a bit with Harry! Think your fans would argue that you sing more than a bit!’  
‘Ooh, bit of a fan, are we?!’ Louis teased.  
‘Yeah, I think Niall’s a great singer!’  
‘Isn’t that Fincham’s line?!’

Nick laughed loudly before he shuffled closer to Louis. ‘I need to sleep.’ He yawned apologetically.  
‘Don’t snore, and I’ll wake you up the best way possible.’ Louis smirked, resting his hand on Nick’s hip.

***

Nick blinked as he began to wake up. It was still dark outside, so he wasn’t sure why his body was waking him up, as he didn’t normally wake up until his alarm went off, but then he suddenly felt Louis’ hand flitting around on his stomach, towards his groin.

‘Hghgghh…what time is it?’ Nick murmured, rocking his hips up slightly towards Louis’ hand.  
‘Like, 4.30am. Can’t sleep. Thought I’d give you a blow job.’ Louis murmured into the darkness.  
Nick shrugged. ‘Well, if you insist!’ He sighed, bending his knees as Louis slid down the bed and in between his legs.

‘Oh fuck…’ He mumbled as Louis dragged his hand over Nick’s cock and Nick rocked his hips up again.   
‘Think I can get you off without you making a sound?’ Louis breathed into his hip.  
‘No!’ Nick huffed out a laugh. ‘Why?’  
‘Want to see how much I can control you.’ Louis admitted, flicking his tongue out and catching the tip of Nick’s cock.  
‘What do I get out of it?’ Nick panted, tilting his head back onto the pillow.  
‘I’ll talk filth to you but the moment you make a sound, I’m gonna pull off and jerk off over you before you get up – but you won’t be allowed to come.’ Louis told him, running his tongue down Nick’s length.  
‘You’re a teasing fucker, you know that?’ Nick laughed. ‘And how are you going to do that with a mouthful of my dick?’ Nick wanted to know.

There was momentary silence from the end of the bed, before Louis launched up the bed, draping his body over Nick’s. ‘Ok, so I’m going to do it like this.’ He said, pushing his hips into Nick’s.

Nick had absolutely no idea how he was meant to be quiet, talking and making noise was what he did on a daily basis.

‘So, I was thinking,’ Louis began, rolling his hips in a figure of 8, ‘that you’ve always been the one to fuck me. And whilst I love that, I’d quite like to fuck you.’

Nick bit down on his lip so hard, he was certain that he was going to draw blood at Louis’ suggestion.

‘You know how to ruin me, but I want to ruin you. I want you to feel me come so hard inside of you.’ Louis murmured, biting down on Nick’s neck gently. Nick could feel his body responding much more quickly to Louis than he was ready to admit. ‘And I want to see you come so hard from me fucking you.’

Nick quite literally had no idea how he’d so far managed not to utter a word or a sound, but he thrust up forcefully, his fingers gripping Louis’ waist, knowing he’d be leaving bruises.

‘So, what do you think, hmm?’ Louis asked and Nick looked up at him in a slight panic, not knowing if he should say something or not. ‘Maybe you can think about it whilst you’re at work, and you’ll have to stay sat at your desk all morning so that nobody sees how aroused you are.’

Nick could feel his orgasm building and he started panting loudly, unable to stay quiet any longer. As Louis realised he was starting to make a sound, he pulled away from Nick’s body but there was no stopping Nick as he came messily, spurting across his own body and Louis’.

Louis slipped down slightly, adjusting himself so that his cock was between Nick’s thighs and he thrust quickly before coming with a shout of Nick’s name on his lips.

Nick could feel the trickle of come slide between his arse and he gasped in a large breath. ‘You’d better keep to your word Tomlinson.’ He panted.  
‘Oh, I intend to. When was the last time you were fucked?’ Louis breathed heavily as he flopped down on top of Nick’s body.  
‘About 3 years ago.’ Nick admitted.  
‘Good, you’re gonna be so fucking tight around me.’ Louis mumbled, before sliding out of bed towards the bathroom.

*** 

As Nick was heading home on Thursday lunchtime after the Breakfast Show and having no idea how he’d managed to get through it without needing to get off after Louis’ promises that morning, he could see a couple of dubious looking people hanging around and he could see them attempting to hide their long lens cameras, but Nick knew they were paparazzi and he knew he and Louis would need to be a bit careful.

As he let himself into the flat, he could hear Louis chatting away. Assuming that he was just on the phone, Nick kicked off his shoes and let himself into the lounge to find Louis sat on his sofa opposite Harry.

‘Well, that would explain the paparazzi across the road popstar!’ He greeted them both. Louis tipped his head back and looked up at Nick, smiling and then taking in what he said.  
‘Photographers?’ He asked warily, sitting up.  
‘Panic not, they are never here for me, they’ll be here for Haz, I’m sure of it.’ Nick assured him, dropping a kiss on his forehead before going over to the kitchen and putting the kettle on.  
‘Well, I do seem to have them follow me wherever I go – you guys have it easy.’ Harry complained, picking up his and Louis’ mugs and following Nick into the kitchen.  
‘Yeah, so easy! Not like we’re in the same band at all!’ Louis called, lying back down on the sofa and flicking on the TV.

Harry stood close to Nick as they waited for the kettle to boil. ‘Ok, what have you done to him?’ He asked quietly.  
Nick frowned. ‘I haven’t done anything to him. Well, not since this morning…’ He grinned at Harry, raising his eyebrows suggestively.   
‘That’s not what I meant! Although would explain why he’s lying down and not sat on his arse this morning! No, he was doing washing when I got here.’  
Nick shrugged, grabbing the tin of tea bags down from a shelf and popping three into three clean mugs. ‘So?’  
‘So, he doesn’t do washing.’  
‘Of course he does – everyone has to do washing.’ Nick replied.  
‘No, Nick, we lived together for over a year and he never once did his own washing. I did every single load of washing in that flat, other than if we had a housekeeper in.’ Harry said in hushed tones, glad that the TV was quite loud.  
‘He’s done loads of washing since he’s been here – maybe he just didn’t have any clean clothes.’ Nick suggested.  
‘Has he done your washing?’ Harry wanted to know.  
‘Yeah, I think a few things.’

Harry grinned widely, shaking his head slowly. ‘He’s so gone for you.’ He smirked.

Nick’s stomach clenched in surprise. ‘Well, I’m not sure we’re there just yet Haz.’ He smiled.  
‘If you ask anyone in our team whether Louis did things like washing, they’d all say no and they’d all agree with me. Just wait, if he cooks for you, he’s likely to propose next!’

Nick’s eyes widened and Harry’s mouth opened in shock. ‘Has he already cooked for you?!’ He demanded to know.  
‘Last night.’ Nick muttered, pouring the hot water over the tea bags and getting the milk out of the fridge.  
‘Oh my god! That’s huge! What did he make you?’   
‘Some chicken, cheese and ham thing.’ Nick replied.  
‘With mash? Oh my god, this is brilliant!’ Harry laughed.

‘What are you two whispering about in there?!’ Louis hollered from the lounge.

‘You cooked!’ Harry grinned at Louis, poking his head around the door, watching gleefully as Louis went a delightful shade of pink.

‘Well, apparently I had some making up to do by surprising old Nicholas here, that’s all. It was nowt.’ He told Harry, flopping back down on the sofa.  
‘Yeah, “nowt”!’ Harry smirked back at Nick.  
‘Shut it! I don’t want you to scare him off!’ Nick whispered harshly.  
‘I don’t think that’s even remotely possible.’ Harry laughed.

*** 

Nick was on his way back from the local Tesco on foot later that afternoon, ignoring the lone paparazzi hanging around, when he bumped into Sophie as he was letting himself into his flat.  
‘I see your young man is still staying.’ She teased gently.  
Nick could feel the blush rising on his cheeks. ‘Not my young man Sophie, just a mate.’

Sophie raised an eyebrow. ‘Nick, the walls in these places aren’t that thick.’ She told him kindly.  
‘Oh my god.’ Nick muttered, closing his eyes and wishing the ground would swallow him up.  
‘It’s ok – I have ear plugs.’ She laughed.  
‘That’s even worse! I’m so sorry!’ He apologised, almost tripping over his words.  
‘Don’t be! We’ve all been in the first throes of passion at some time in our lives! I think it’s lovely. Andrew, the newsagent, was agreeing with me when we were talking about it on Tuesday afternoon.

The smile fell off Nick’s face and he felt his blood quite literally run cold. ‘What do you mean?’  
‘Well, he was asking about you the other day and I happened to have a magazine in my hand which had your young man on the front. Should I not have said anything?’ Sophie asked, taking in Nick’s ashen white face.  
‘Kind of depends on what you said.’ He said quietly, feeling incredibly sick.  
‘Just that I’d seen him here on Tuesday lunchtime.’  
‘Fuck.’ Nick muttered. ‘I’m so sorry Sophie, I’ve got to go.’ He told her in a rush, pushing open the door and dumping all the bags on the floor in the hallway.  
‘I’m sorry if I’ve done something wrong!’ He heard Sophie call but he was too panicked and shut the door quickly.  
‘Louis!’ Nick hollered, but there was no reply. Rushing into the lounge, he glanced around but couldn’t see any sign of Louis. ‘LOU!’ He shouted again and there was a faint noise to his right, so Nick headed into his bedroom.

‘Louis, we may have a problem…fuck, what are you doing?!’ He asked, finding Louis lying on his bed, opening himself up.  
‘The only problem we have is that you’re fully dressed.’ Louis grinned, his eyes dark and hooded.

All previous thoughts flew out of his mind, and Nick hopped out of his shoes and jeans, ripping his t-shirt over his head and practically launching himself at Louis in the middle of the bed.

‘Do you have any idea how hot you are when you do this?’ He growled, running his hands down Louis’ sides as he pushed him onto his back.  
‘I’ve got a pretty good idea what it does to you, yes.’ Louis smirked, wrapping his arms around Nick’s neck to bring their lips together.

*** 

‘So, what did you come running in for earlier?’ Louis asked, flopping down onto the sofa after their joint shower which had taken rather longer than it should have done with Nick’s wandering hands bringing Louis off for a third time.

‘Oh, fuck. I forgot. Sophie, next door, may have let the cat out of the bag, about us.’ Nick grimaced, sitting on the sofa opposite Louis.

Louis sat bolt upright. ‘What? To who?’ He snapped. ‘Fuck, Nick, why didn’t you say anything?!’  
‘Sorry, I was slightly distracted! I thought the paparazzi were around for Harry, this morning, but there’s still a guy out there, hanging around, so maybe someone knows you might be here.’ Nick said, wringing his hands together.

Louis closed his eyes and fell back onto the sofa again. ‘Oh my god. This is a nightmare.’  
Nick clicked his tongue in his mouth, not knowing what to say.  
‘I have to go.’ Louis said, sitting up again, facing Nick.

Nick just nodded. ‘Ok.’  
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ Louis muttered. ‘Is there anyway I can get out of here without being seen?’

Nick shook his head. ‘Nope. Just the front door.’  
‘Maybe I should wait until tonight, when it’s dark, I can just get a driver to pick me up and take me home. I can’t be seen.’ Louis said, starting to get his things together from around the lounge.

‘Or, you know, maybe you could be.’ Nick suggested, leaning back and slinging his legs onto the coffee table in front of him.

‘Maybe I could be what?’ Louis asked distractedly.  
‘Seen. Come on, think about it, people are starting to put two and two together.’

Louis stopped and stared at Nick. ‘Are they?’ He asked carefully.  
‘Do you even ever check Tumblr?’ Nick asked, pulling out his phone, opening the app and throwing his phone at Louis.

Nick watched as the blood drained out of Louis’ face as he scrolled through Nick’s dashboard, seeing the various posts.  
‘Oh my god. This can’t be happening.’ He muttered, sitting down at the dining table.

Nick crossed his arms, deliberately keeping his mouth shut.

‘How have they got it so right?’ Louis asked him.  
Nick shrugged. ‘Dunno.’ He murmured.  
‘Why are you sulking?’ Louis demanded.  
‘I’m not sulking.’ Nick snapped.  
‘Do you want us to be caught?’ 

Nick glanced at Louis, his face giving away his answer.

‘Fucking hell Nick! We’ve been fucking for a year and we’ve been on one stupid date, I don’t think we’re quite read to go public! How do we even know that we are going to work?!’ Louis cried.

‘A stupid date?’ Nick asked.  
Louis closed his eyes as he realised what he’d said. ‘It wasn’t stupid, I didn’t mean that…’  
‘I think perhaps you did.’ Nick challenged him.  
‘You said you could do this! You said we could keep it quiet!’ Louis said, standing up and throwing Nick’s phone back at him.  
‘I know, and I still stand by that, but people are already talking. Going AWOL wasn’t the cleverest thing you’ve ever done, being seen in Dubai and in Primrose Hill.’ He told him.

Louis threw his arms up in the air and turned his back to Nick. He could see the muscles tensing up in Louis’ shoulders and back as he fought to not lose his temper. Nick could tell Louis had failed the moment he turned back to him.

‘Do you know why I flew back, you fucking idiot?’ Louis snarled angrily. ‘Because I love you, you arsehole. I’ve never spent Valentine’s Day with someone I love before, and the thought of you sad and alone here was sad and pathetic and I wanted to do something nice for you. I know this is all my fucking stupid fault, but I kind of thought that you were worth it.’

Nick just stared open-mouthed at Louis.

Louis seemed to suddenly realise what he’d said. ‘Fuck.’ He muttered to himself. ‘That’s not how I wanted to tell you.’ He said in a small voice.

Nick held a hand out and Louis eyed him suspiciously before sitting on the corner of the coffee table, his eyes now glued to the floor.

‘Really?’ Nick asked, taking one of Louis’ hands in his own.  
Louis squirmed awkwardly. ‘Yes, you fucker.’  
‘I kind of love you too, drama queen.’ Nick smirked as Louis glanced at him warily.  
‘I’m not a drama queen.’ Louis tried to protest.  
‘Oh love, you are – you’re more of a drama queen than me, and believe me, none of my friends are going to believe that!’  
‘I am so not more dramatic than you!’ Louis gasped, a fond smile on his face.

Nick raised an eyebrow. ‘Er, really? I didn’t just blurt out I love you in the middle of a row!’  
Louis bristled slightly. ‘Alright, show off.’ He said. ‘I meant it.’  
Nick pulled Louis to him and Louis stood up before dropping onto Nick’s lap, his knees either side of Nick’s waist.  
‘I know you did. I meant it too.’  
‘What, that you just kind of love me? Here am I, making dramatic revelations, flying all the way from fucking Australia to have a five hour sex marathon and you just kind of love me?!’ Louis teased, resting his forehead on Nick’s.

Nick leant back and rolled his eyes. ‘See? Drama queen – you always have to win! And alright, I love you, ok?’ He said, feeling his cheeks going red.  
‘Yeah, ok!’ Louis said, impersonating Nick’s accent.  
‘So, what are we going to do about them outside?’ Nick asked, his hands idly playing with the loops at the back of Louis’ jeans.

Louis sighed loudly. ‘I don’t know. I kind of like it being just us.’  
‘But it’s not just us anymore, is it? Your band know, your management know, your family know – I assume?’  
Louis nodded. ‘Yeah. I kind of had a bit of a breakdown on my mum when I got bollocked by management.’  
‘And your fans are already onto us.’ Nick reminded him.  
‘They’re like the fucking FBI – how do they know so much?!’  
‘I think sometimes love, it’s the things that you don’t say, rather than the things you do.’

*** 

An hour later, after Louis had disappeared into Nick’s bedroom to make some calls, Louis came out with a barely hidden smile on his face.  
‘They I reckon I should do it.’

Nick raised his eyebrows. ‘Really? Even with the consequences?’ He asked from the sofa.  
‘Yep.’  
‘Even though your management may sue you?’  
‘Yeah – I’ll have to be a kept man, I suppose!’ Louis grinned. ‘Fuck, I’m nervous.’  
‘We don’t have to do it today. We don’t even have to do it before you head off on tour again.’ Nick reminded him.  
‘No, we have to do it because I might bottle it otherwise.’ Louis told him.  
‘Ok, well, just say when and I’ll get my jacket.’ Nick told him as Louis lay down on the sofa, pretending to watch the TV programme Nick had been watching, but Nick could tell he was miles away, thinking about their situation.

Half an hour later, Louis sat up. ‘Can we go now?’ he asked quietly.

Not wanting to keep questioning him, Nick nodded and turned the TV off with the remote. ‘I’ll just get my jacket.’ He told Louis, heading into the bedroom.

Nick stood in front of the mirror in his bedroom and took some deep breaths. He supposed he should make some phone calls before they went out of the front door, but he’d been out for ages – it was Louis’ call and whilst he might get a few million phone calls to ask him what the hell was going on, Nick didn’t want to stand in Louis’ way if he felt ready.

Grabbing his jacket, Nick headed into the kitchen and then got Pig’s lead from the side. ‘Ready?’ He asked Louis, clipping the lead onto Pig’s collar and standing straight.

Louis nodded. Nick couldn’t help but notice he was as white as a sheet. ‘Come on, let’s go babe.’

*** 

Nick was well aware that the pap he’d seen on the way into the flat earlier that afternoon began following them as soon as they left the flat. Louis was the quietest Nick had possibly ever seen him as they walked towards Regent’s Park. Nick rattled on mindlessly about the show that morning, waiting for Louis to feel more comfortable.

He let Pig off her lead as they got inside Regent’s Park. He watched her as she raced after the nearest birds on the grass. He gently rubbed Louis’ arm with his hand. ‘You ok?’ he asked.  
‘Feel sick.’ Louis admitted. ‘Why is this so hard? It shouldn’t be. Just because I’m gay, I have to come out – it’s fucking mad.’ He said.  
‘Well, I think we’ve already been seen by a few people.’ Nick told him, having seen that there were a few people watching them with interest. ‘Fancy giving them something to watch?’ He asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Louis burst out laughing. ‘I’m pretty certain with what we get up to, we’d be arrested on the spot!’  
‘You’re worth it.’ Nick smirked.  
‘Of course I am.’ Louis agreed with a straight face before he smiled again. ‘You know, I know I fucked up, flying home for Valentine’s Day, but I guess we’d still be sneaking around if I hadn’t.’  
‘And we’d have had less sex, so, you know, that’s not good.’   
‘You just want me for my body, don’t you?!’ Louis mock gasped.  
‘And as if you don’t want me for my fingers.’ Nick laughed, waggling them in Louis’ face, taking great satisfaction from the fact a red blush appeared on Louis’ face. ‘You know, I never knew you embarrassed so easily.’ He teased.  
‘I hate you. I’m not with anyone else – I can literally out embarrass everyone else.’ Louis admitted.

Nick glanced around again – there were now about six groups of people watching them, camera phones out and at least two photographers lurking as well. ‘Do you wanna call Pig over and we’ll head towards the zoo?’

Nick watched as Pig came bounding over to Louis, jumping up and barking at him as he bent down to tickle her ears. He could almost hear the cogs working in the heads of the people around them – Pig must be used to Louis to come bounding over to him so enthusiastically.

‘Fancy a takeaway tonight, or dinner out?’ Nick asked as they walked closely next to each other, Nick’s shoulder bumping into Louis’ accidentally on purpose.  
‘Takeaway. My heart is already about to die on me with nerves – if we are seen out for dinner on the same night, it might just stop working.’ Louis grinned.  
‘Wanna hold hands?’ Nick asked, his arm brushing against Louis’.

Louis laughed nervously. ‘Fuck this, I feel like I’m about 15 again!’  
‘Well, that was only like, last week for you.’ Nick teased, determined to put Louis at ease.  
‘Alright, aged old man. What are you, like 105?!’  
‘Nah, you keep me young – what is it they say, you’re only as young as the man you’re shagging. Which, actually, makes you…’

Louis glared at him. ‘Stop right there or there will be no more shagging.’  
‘Yeah, yeah, as if you could give up these fingers.’ Nick smirked, waving them in Louis’ face.

Louis walked ahead of Nick and then turned, stopping dead in front of him. ‘I’m going to kiss you.’ He announced.

Nick raised his eyebrows. ‘Ok.’ He smiled as Louis took a deep breath, took a step closer to Nick, stood on his tip toes and wrapped his arms around Nick’s neck. ‘Is anyone looking?’ He asked and Nick glanced around, attempting to be subtle, but knowing he was failing.  
‘Yeah, about 20 odd people, most of whom have cameras pointing in our direction.’ He replied.  
‘Good.’ Louis smiled, before leaning up and kissing Nick soundly on the lips.

*** 

‘How many papers did you get?’ Louis called from the lounge as Nick let himself into the flat the following morning.  
‘Like, all of them? You’re front page news on 6 national newspapers.’ Nick grinned, dropping the papers onto the coffee table in front of Louis.  
‘I am, like, totally famous. Hell, I may now have more paps following me than Harry!’ Louis laughed.  
‘Let’s not get above ourselves!’ Nick laughed. ‘Much online?’  
‘Loads, but I’m ignoring all of the bad stuff. Apparently, most people are just saying ‘we knew it’ and are gloating!’

Nick sat down next to Louis and kissed him briefly. ‘I’m really proud of you.’ He told him. ‘What have management had to say?’

Louis grinned and blushed at the same time. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you. They’ve probably used a whole dictionary worth of words and sent me several emails and documents to sign and stuff and they’re probably going to sue me for everything I’ve got, but the lies of the last few years have been the worst.’

Nick sat back as Louis flicked through the newspapers on the coffee table. He knew the next few days wouldn’t be easy but as long as they got stuck together, they’d get through it.

The End.


End file.
